Shuphatym (Judges) — 17

Micah’s Idols

1 There was a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Aphraim. 

2 One day he said to his mother, “I heard you place a curse on the person who stole one thousand one hundred pieces of silver from you. Well, I have the money. I was the one who took it, his mother replied to him and said,  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH barak you for admitting it. 

3 He returned the money to her, and she said, “I now dedicate these silver coins to  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast.”

4 So when he returned the money to his mother, she took two hundred silver coins and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol. And these were placed in Micah’s house. 

5 Micah set up a shrine for the idol, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as his personal priest.

6 In those days Yashar'AL had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

7 One day a young Lauym, who had been living in Bathlaham in Yahudah, arrived in that area. 

8 He had left Bathlaham in search of another place to live, and as he traveled, he came to the hill country of Aphraim, he happened to stop at Micah’s house as he was traveling through. 

9 “Where are you from?” Micah asked him. He replied, “I am a Lauym from Bathlaham in Yahudah, and I am looking for a place to live.”

10 “Stay here with me,” Micah said, “and you can be a father and Kuhan to me. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, plus a change of clothes and your food.” 

11 The Lauym agreed to this, and the young man became like one of Micah’s sons.

12 So Micah installed the Lauym as his personal Kuhan, and he lived in Micah’s house. 

13 “I know 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH will barak me now,” Micah said, “because I have a Lauym serving as my Kuhan (priest).”